Looking Forward To...

So there's a movie coming out this weekend that stars Taylor Kitsch who wowed critics in Friday Night Lights. The rest of the cast is even better--from former Oscar nominees like Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, and Thomas Haden Church to some of TV's best actors like Bryan Cranston, Polly Walker, Ciaran Hinds, and James Purefoy. Director-writer Andrew Stanton (aka the man responsible for Wall-E and Finding Nemo) is helming the film along with two co-writers whose credits include the amazing Spider-Man 2 and the upcoming Pixar film Brave. If that wasn't enough the film's music is composed by Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino who has given us beautiful scores from Lost to Up.

That film is... John Carter. Oh.


God, even its poster above looks amazingly brilliant doesn't it? So what went wrong? Why is NO ONE excited about this film at all? In fact it seems like most are absolutely dreading it. At the moment it's barely fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 60% and will probably trend downwards as more reviews start to come in. If this does crash and burn with audiences (since it's pretty much DOA with the critics it seems) that's just too bad since I like most of the names I mentioned above. With that said, it hasn't happened yet. It could still surprise and take one of the top spots at this weekend's box office. Its only competition seem to be Dr. Seuss' The Lorax which surprised this past weekend with its $70+ million take. If that didn't make you shake your head, maybe this will. The entire top 10 comprised of films that were rated rotten:


Ouch! It's worth to note that Best Picture champ The Artist (at 97%) was ranked #11 for the weekend. Now there are two films I am actually looking forward to (well sorta) that's also coming out this weekend and thankfully they both are getting okay-ish reviews. Since they're coming out in limited theaters, I'd be shocked if either one cracks the top 20 at the box office charts.


Friends with Kids stars Jennifer Westfeldt (she wrote and directed the film as well) and Adam Scott as two friends who agree to have kids while remaining unattached to each other. I'm guessing this movie's selling point is less its story and more its cast which also includes modern day brat packers Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Chris O'Dowd. The other film, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, is about... well salmon fishing in the Yemen. Written by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) and starring Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas, it looks like a romantic film masquering itself as a human interest film. Like the first film, the cast is the selling point for me, but similarly I'm just not sure that's enough for me. We'll see.